Graceful Degradation with Helpful Messages
Graceful Degradation with Helpful Messages
When optional services are unavailable, degrade gracefully with actionable fallback messages.
Pattern
Check availability at the start, cache the result, and provide helpful messages that explain what's missing and how to fix it.
DO
Check service availability early (before wasting compute)
Cache health check results for the session (e.g., 60s TTL)
Provide actionable fallback messages:
What service is missing
What features are degraded
How to enable the service
Continue with reduced functionality when possible
DON'T
Silently fail or return empty results
Check availability on every call (cache it)
Assume the user knows how to start missing services
Example: LMStudio Check Pattern
let lmstudioAvailable: boolean | null = null;
let lastCheck = 0;
const CACHE_TTL = 60000; // 60 seconds
async function checkLMStudio(): Promise<boolean> {
const now = Date.now();
if (lmstudioAvailable !== null && now - lastCheck < CACHE_TTL) {
return lmstudioAvailable;
}
try {
const response = await fetch('http://localhost:1234/v1/models', {
signal: AbortSignal.timeout(2000)
});
lmstudioAvailable = response.ok;
} catch {
lmstudioAvailable = false;
}
lastCheck = now;
return lmstudioAvailable;
}
// Usage
if (!await checkLMStudio()) {
return {
result: 'continue',
message: `LMStudio not available at localhost:1234.
To enable Godel-Prover tactic suggestions:
1. Install LMStudio from https://lmstudio.ai/
2. Load "Goedel-Prover-V2-8B" model
3. Start the local server on port 1234
Continuing without AI-assisted tactics...`
};
}
Fallback Message Template
[Service] not available at [endpoint].
To enable [feature]:
1. [Step to install/start]
2. [Configuration step if needed]
3. [Verification step]
Continuing without [degraded feature]...
Source Sessions
This session: LMStudio availability check with 60s caching and helpful fallback
174e0ff3: Environment variable debugging - print computed paths for troubleshootingdon't have the plugin yet? install it then click "run inline in claude" again.